Part 93
1552. CATHARINE VON BORA, wife of Martin Luther, died. She was rescued from a nunnery with eight others by the assistance of the great reformer. She survived him several years.
1585. PETER DE RONSARD died; a French elegiac and epigrammatic poet of a noble family.
1603. THOMAS CARTWRIGHT, an English puritan of great eminence and learning, died. He was a sharp and powerful controversialist, author of a practical commentary on the gospels and proverbs. He was obliged to quit the kingdom to avoid persecution, and died in great poverty.
1605. JOHN DAVIS, a famous English navigator, killed in a desperate fight with some Japanese near the coast of Malacca.
1669. SAMUEL CLARKE died; a celebrated English oriental scholar.
1689. PETER HALLE, an eminent French civilian and poet, died. He was offered the headship of five colleges, and accepted the professorship of canon law in the university of Paris, where he raised the character of that much neglected science.
1763. LAWRENCE NATTIER died; a Swabian, who published a work on antient gems.
1763. The Paxton boys broke into Lancaster jail and massacred fourteen friendly Indians.
1771. HENRY PITOT died; a celebrated French mathematician, and friend of the great Reaumur.
1779. The Spanish armament opened their batteries upon Gibraltar. It is supposed the general had no orders to fire until this time, but to remain on the defensive.
1784. LEE BOO, a prince of the Pelew islands, died in England, whither he had been sent to acquire an education.
1791. JOHN MONRO died; an English physician, celebrated for his skill in cases of insanity.
1800. HUGH BLAIR, a celebrated Scottish divine, died. His _Lectures on Rhetoric_ delivered as professor at the Edinburgh university, are eminently distinguished by laborious investigation, sound sense and refined taste; and his printed sermons have had a success almost unparalleled in the annals of pulpit eloquence.
1808. The French under LANNES assaulted Saragossa, in Spain, and the convent of St. Eugratia carried. This was the second siege.
1814. JOANNA SOUTHCOTT, a noted English fanatic and imposter, died. At the age of 42 she claimed the character of a prophet, and for more than twenty years continued her rhapsodies, and drew after her several thousand adherents, who are not yet extinct.
1814. United States schooner Carolina, blown up on the Mississippi river by a red hot ball from the British batteries.
1820. JOHN KEATS, an English poet, died in Italy. He was originally a stable boy, subsequently apprenticed to a surgeon, but gave way to the ambition of becoming a poet. His poems though written at a very early age, possess merit.
1834. CHARLES LAMB, the poet Coleridge's friend, died. In some of his most popular works he was assisted by his sister Mary Lamb.
1835. EPHRAIM WILLIAMS, an eminent lawyer, died at Deerfield, Mass. He prepared the first volume of the Massachusetts reports.
1840. JENNY KENNISON died at Brookfield, N. H., aged 110.
1842. ALEXANDER CROKE, quite a voluminous writer on law, politics, &c., died at Studley priory, England, aged 85.
1842. FRANCIS WRANGHAM, distinguished as a poet and antiquary, died at Chester, England.
1851. BASIL MONTAGU, an English author, died, aged 81. He edited the last and best edition of _Bacon's Works_, and was one of the earliest, most prominent and most zealous advocates of a mitigated penal code in England.
1853. The mammoth clipper Great Republic was burnt at her wharf in New York, together with several other vessels and five large flour warehouses.
1854. THOMAS WILSON DORR, the cause of what was called the Dorr war in Rhode Island, died at Providence, aged 49.
DECEMBER 28.
1065. St. Peter's church at Westminster dedicated by Edward the confessor.
1278. Injunction of the primate of England to the nunnery at Godstow, that public prayers on this day, Childermas, should not any more be said by little girls.
1377. WICKLIFF divulged his opinion upon the pope's mandate.
1499. Earl of Warwick, the last of the male line of the Plantagenets, beheaded on Tower hill.
1601. The town of Kinsale, head of the sea, in Ireland, garrisoned by Spaniards and Irish catholics, surrendered to the English armies.
1638. A Spanish ordinance establishing stamped paper in America.
1694. MARY II, queen of England, died of small pox, aged 33. She had reigned six years in conjunction with William III, and was greatly extolled for her virtues.
1697. MARY BEALE, an English portrait painter, died. She is styled by Oldys "that masculine poet as well as painter, the incomparable Mrs. Beale."
1706. PETER BAYLE, a most laborious and indefatigable French writer, died. He was an author of great ability, principally known by his _Critical Dictionary_.
1708. JOSEPH PITTON DE TOURNEFORT, a famous French botanist and natural historian, died.
1733. KOULI KHAN defeated the Turks before Babylon, killing 20,000, with the loss of 10,000.
1737. VICTOR MARIE D'ESTREES, a French admiral, died. He was also a man of literature, and member of several learned bodies.
1737. Singular sinking and rising of land at Scarborough, in Yorkshire, England.
1757. CAROLINE ELIZABETH, 3d daughter of Geo. II, of England, died.
1757. Leignitz taken by the Prussians under Frederick II, by which the Austrians and French were compelled to abandon Silesia, with the loss of 4,000 men.
1758. The French settlement of Goree taken by the British admiral Keppel.
1775. JOHN CAMPBELL, an eminent Scottish historical, biographical and political writer died.
1778. The French under count D'ESTAING re-embarked their troops at St. Lucia, and sailed on the following day.
1788. JOHN LOGAN, a Scottish divine and poet, died. He obtained much distinction as an eloquent preacher.
1797. War with the pope renewed by the French, occasioned by the assassination of Duplot, a French general, who was sent to Rome as an ambassador.
1811. Funeral at Richmond, Va., of those who perished at the burning of the theatre.
1814. United States privateer Prince of Neufchatel, 18 guns and 130 men, captured by British ship Leander, two frigates in company.
1814. British cannonaded unsuccessfully the Americans under Gen. Jackson. The cannonade continued 7 hours; the British loss estimated at 120 killed; American loss 9 killed, 8 wounded.
1817. CHARLES BARNEY, an eminent English scholar, died. He greatly distinguished himself by the depth of his literary researches, and by his extraordinary skill in the Greek language.
1817. American colonization society formed at Washington, having for its object the returning of free people of color to Africa.
1818. ALEXANDER, emperor of Russia, gave to his peasant subjects the same right with his nobles to establish manufactures.
1825. J. D. BARBIE-DU-BOCAGE, a French geographer, died. He furnished plans and maps for the most celebrated works of the day, and published an atlas of 54 sheets to illustrate ancient history.
1825. JOHN THOMAS SERRES, a French artist, died. His sea pieces possess much merit, and he is besides the author of the _Little Sea Torch_, a guide for coasting pilots.
1831. Insurrection of the slaves in Jamaica, in the course of which about 30,000 blacks were under arms, 4,000 of whom were killed. The amount of property destroyed was estimated at $15,000,000.
1835. Battle of Tampa bay; a company of 110 United States troops under major Dade, attacked by a large party of Seminole Indians, and all but three slain.
1853. A great snow storm commenced, which continued 36 hours, extending over the new England states, and causing great interruption to business and travel.
DECEMBER 29.
1170. THOMAS BECKET, archbishop of Canterbury, assassinated in his cathedral, aged 53.
1563. SEBASTIAN CASTALIO, a French writer, died. His writings are very considerable, both for their number and quality, discover great knowledge of the languages, and are chiefly on scripture subjects.
1594. JOHN CHASTEL, the son of a woolen draper at Paris, executed for an attempt to assassinate the king, Henry IV.
1674. Battle of Mulhausen; the French under Turenne, gained a victory over the Germans.
1680. WILLIAM STAFFORD, an English nobleman, beheaded. He was convicted of high treason as a conspirator in the popish plot, said to have been contrived by the catholics for the assassination of Charles II.
1689. THOMAS SYDENHAM died; an excellent English physician and medical writer.
1699. GEORGE MATTHIAS KŒNIG, a learned German writer, died; distinguished for his knowledge of belles lettres, divinity and oriental languages; principally known by a biographical dictionary which has been of great service to subsequent compilers.
1713. JOHN CHARDIN, a famous French _voyageur_, died. He was driven to England on the revocation of the edict of Nantes, where he was knighted by Charles II. His _Voyages_ have always been much esteemed as very curious and accurate.
1731. BROOK TAYLOR, an English mathematician and philosopher, died. His works were valuable and often republished.
1737. JOSEPH SAURIN, a French mathematician, died. He devoted his life to geometrical pursuits, and is conspicuous for a controversy with Rousseau who wished to palm upon him some of his own libelous verses against persons of distinction.
1755. GABRIELLE SUSANNE BARBOT DE VILLENEUVE, a celebrated French novel writer, died.
1761. ELIZABETH, queen of Russia, died. She was the daughter of Peter the Great, and ascended the throne, 1741.
1774. TOUSSAINT GASPARD TACONNET died; a French actor and dramatic writer, noted for his eccentricity.
1778. Savannah taken by the British. A negro conducted the British by a private path to the rear of the Americans, who being attacked in front and flank, made a fatal retreat. Upwards of 100 Americans were killed, 453 taken; the town and fort, 48 cannon, 23 mortars, with ammunition and stores, the shipping in the river, and large quantities of provisions fell into the hands of the enemy.
1783. SAMUEL COOPER, a Boston clergyman, died. His sermons were evangelical and perspicuous, and unequaled in America at that time for taste and elegance.
1783. DANIEL WRAY, a learned English antiquary, died, aged 82.
1790. JOHN GEORGE LA FRANC DE POMPIGNAN, a learned French prelate, died. He was author of sixteen works on different subjects.
1794. The town of Grave, considered a masterpiece of fortification, surrendered to the French under Pichegru, after a blockade of two months.
1797. General DUPHOT, assassinated by the populace at Rome, which was made a pretext of the French directory for dethroning the pope, Pius VI. Duphot had distinguished himself on several memorable occasions, and had repaired to Rome for the purpose of espousing the sister of Bonaparte, afterwards married to Murat.
1798. American government issued orders to the commanders of their armed vessels to repel by force the mustering and searching their vessels, and detaining them; but when overpowered by a superior force, to strike their colors and surrender ship and men.
1812. Action between United States frigate Constitution, 54 guns, 480 men, Capt. Bainbridge, and British frigate Java, 49 guns and 500 men including supernumerary officers, which resulted in the capture of the latter in 55 minutes. Loss of the Java 60 killed and 101 wounded including the captain, Lambert, mortally. Constitution lost 34 killed and wounded.
1825. JAMES LOUIS DAVID, a celebrated French painter, died. He was one of the wildest idolators of Robespierre and Marat, but finally lost his repugnance to monarchy under Bonaparte. He was banished on the restoration of the Bourbons, and died at Brussels. His works are numerous, and attest a splendid genius.
1832. Baron COTTA died. He was the originator of the daily political paper, the _Algemeine Zeitung_, so extensively circulated in Europe.
1832. JAMES HILLHOUSE, an American statesman, died at New Haven, Ct., aged 79. He took an active part in the revolution, and was eighteen years a member of congress. He was entrusted with the construction of the Farmington canal.
1834. T. R. MALTHUS, an English writer on political economy, died. His most celebrated work is an _Essay on Population_, which has passed through many editions, and been translated into various languages.
1836. DEBORAH TRIPP died at Poughkeepsie, aged 10 years and six months, and weighing 360 pounds. A few years before, herself and a younger sister were exhibited about the country for their extraordinary fatness. The younger sister died two or three years previous.
1837. WILLIAM MAVOR, a popular English author and compiler, died, aged 80. His _Voyages_ and _Universal History_, in 25 vols. each, are well known, and his _English Spelling Book_ passed through between four and five hundred editions.
1837. The imperial palace at St. Petersburg burnt, the weather at the time being 22° below zero. The palace was built in the reign of Elizabeth, at a cost of upwards of $5,000,000, and was the largest in Europe, sufficient to lodge 12,000 persons. The loss of treasures, pictures, statues, ornaments and furniture was immense.
1837. Steamer Caroline, a vessel in the service of the Navy island patriots, destroyed.
1839. Battle of Cagancha between the forces of Uruguay, under Rivera, and those of Buenos Ayres under Echague. The latter had an army of 5,000 men, and was defeated with the loss of 800 killed, and prisoners, baggage, &c., taken. Rivera's loss about 200.
1845. Texas admitted into the union.
1848. Wisconsin admitted into the union.
1848. The Roman chambers were dissolved and a constituent assembly convened.
1849. Great crevasse in the Mississippi banks at Bonnet Carré, about forty miles above New Orleans.
1850. The British forces had an engagement with the Caffres, in South Africa, were defeated with considerable loss, and obliged to retreat to their fort.
1852. ROBERT FORREST, an eminent Scottish sculptor, died, aged 63. He was originally a stone mason, in the quarries of Clydesdale; but the products of his chisel are seen in the most conspicuous points of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
1855. The French imperial guard made a triumphal entry into Paris on its return from the Crimea.
DECEMBER 30.
944 B. C. The winter solstice fell upon this day, according to the marble, by the table of Petavius; which places the period of Homer thirty-seven years later.
1535. The society of the Jesuits founded by Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish monk, who entered into an agreement with five of his fellow students to undertake the conversion of unbelievers and a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. From this small beginning it became a powerful society under the energy and shrewd policy of its leaders, and was raised to a degree of historical importance unparalleled in its kind.
1567. Bonhill field, the ancient burial place of the dissenters, surveyed, "containing 23 acres, 1 rod and 6 poles; butting upon Chiswell street on the south, and on the north upon the highway that leadeth from Wenlock's barn to the well called St. Agnes the Cleere." It was also the common place of interment for the victims of the great plague in 1665. Bunyan, Watts, Owen, De Foe, George Fox, are among the distinguished men who rest there.
1568. The learned ROGER ASCHAM, died; sometime tutor to queen Elizabeth, and afterwards her Latin secretary.
1582. EMANUEL ALVAREZ died; a Portuguese Jesuit, distinguished as a grammarian.
1596. EMANUEL DE SAA, a Portuguese Jesuit, died; professor of theology at Coimbra and at Rome, and author of several valuable works.
1644. JOHN BAPTIST VAN HELMONT, a physician of Brussels, died. He was a man of great learning in physic and natural philosophy. His cures were so extraordinary that he was brought before the inquisition as a man that did things beyond the reach of nature. He cleared himself of the inquisition, but to be more at liberty retired into Holland.
1655. Several persons wounded at the door of the parliament house, England, by a quaker, who pretended that he was inspired to slay all in the house.
1661. The earl of Argyle committed to Edinburgh castle for high treason.
1688. The prince of Orange received the sacrament to allay suspicions of his wishing to change the liturgy of the English church.
1691. ROBERT BOYLE, the distinguished philosopher and chemist, died. He was the seventh son and fourteenth child of Richard, earl of Cork, and secured immortal fame by his writings and discoveries in experimental philosophy.
1695. SAMUEL MORLAND, though a great favorite with king Charles, died in poverty. He constructed an arithmetical machine.
1721. PETER DE VALLEMONT, a French ecclesiastic, died; known by his _Elements of History_, and other works.
1730. JAMES SAURIN, an eminent French divine and theological and controversial writer, died in Holland, where he took shelter from persecution.
1747. EDWARD HOLDSWORTH, an English poet, died.
1765. SAMUEL MADDEN, an Irish divine and dramatic poet, died. He instituted the Dublin society, and set apart an annuity of £100 to be distributed as premiums for improvements in the useful arts.
1765. JAMES FRANCIS EDWARD (_the Pretender_), died at Rome. He was the son of James II of England, who was compelled to abdicate by his want of discretion in the government.
1774. PAUL WHITEHEAD died; an English poet of considerable eminence.
1777. LEOPOLD MAXIMILIAN, elector of Bavaria, died. The succession to his dominions occasioned a war between Germany and Prussia.
1781. JOHN TUBERVILLE NEEDHAM, professor of philosophy in the English college at Lisbon, died. He wrote various philosophical and critical works; though a learned man he was a very superstitious character.
1800. THOMAS DIMSDALE, an eminent English physician, died. His celebrity was such that he was invited to the court of Russia, where he inoculated the empress Catharine and her son with small pox.
1809. AUGUSTUS FRANCIS JULIAN HERBIN died; a native of France, distinguished as an oriental scholar.
1813. Buffalo burnt. Fort George, or Newark, in Upper Canada, having been wantonly burnt down by the American troops, a part of the British army crossed over from fort Erie, and utterly destroyed the village of Buffalo, in retaliation. It contained 100 houses.
1833. WILLIAM SOTHEBY, an English poet and translator, died. His translations from Virgil and Homer rank in the first class of that difficult and rarely successful branch of literature.
1834. The first reformed British parliament dissolved by royal proclamation.
1836. The plague continued to rage at Constantinople; having carried off during the summer and autumn no less than 100,000 citizens.
1837. An attack made by upwards of 100 Canadian loyalists upon the American steamboat Caroline, lying in the Niagara, at Schlosser, and of 34 Americans on board 22 lost their lives. The boat was towed into the current, with part of the men on board, and precipitated down the falls.
1853. JOHN AVERY PARKER, a distinguished merchant and a millionaire, died in New Bedford, Mass.
1853. The ship Staffordshire, captain Richardson, from Liverpool to Boston, struck on a rock south of Seal island, and sunk, carrying down 177 of the passengers and crew.
DECEMBER 31.
71 B. C. POMPEY and CRASSUS triumph at Rome. The former had closed the ten years' war in Lusitania, and Crassus the revolt of Spartacus at home. Marcus Lucullus triumphed the same year, bringing with him the Thracian colossus of Apollo.
192. LUCIUS AURELIUS COMMODUS, a dissipated emperor of Rome, strangled, and Pertinax elected. It was in the reign of this emperor, A. D. 190, that the Capitoline library at Rome was destroyed.
406. The Huns, 100,000 strong, entered Gaul, and laid desolate her seventeen luxurious provinces with havoc and flame, from the banks of the Rhine to the Pyrenæan mountains.
535. The acquisition of Sicily from the Goths. Belisarius entered Syracuse in triumph, a city which once embraced 22 miles.
1384. JOHN WICKLIFFE died; professor of divinity in the university of Oxford, and father of the reformation of the English church from popery.
1460. Battle of Wakefield, in England; the duke of York and 3000 of his followers slain.
1563. CHARLES DE COSSE died; a French general of great military talents, and employed also as a diplomatist.
1583. THOMAS ERASTUS, a celebrated German physician and divine, died. He wrote several works on philosophy, physic and divinity; but is chiefly memorable for his work on excommunication, in which he denies the power of the church, and affirms its censures to be incapable of extending beyond the present life.
1600. The East India company established by a charter from Elizabeth, granted to the earl of Cumberland and 215 knights, aldermen and merchants. The original capital was £22,000, divided into shares of £50.
1616. JAMES LE MAIRE died at sea in returning with the Dutch navigator, Schouten. In this voyage, the straits that bear his name were discovered, between Staaten Land and Terra del Fuego.
1620. Era of the first settlement of New England. It being sabbath, they kept the day for the first time in their new house, and in grateful remembrance of the friends they found in the last town they left in their native country, they called it Plymouth.
1674. Battle of Mulhausen, in Alsace, in which the French marshal Turenne defeated the Austrians.
1679. JOHN ADOLPHUS BORELLI, a distinguished philosopher and mathematician, of Naples, died; author of thirteen treatises in Italian and Latin.
1704. The peak of Teneriffe formed a lateral eruption in the plain de los Infantes, preceded by tremendous earthquakes.
1718. JOHN FLAMSTEAD, an eminent English astronomer, died. He formed a new catalogue of the fixed stars, containing about three thousand.
1762. MARY COLLYER died; the translator of Gesner's poem of the _Death of Abel_.
1771. CHRISTIAN ADOLPHUS KLOTZ, professor of philosophy at Göttingen, died. He distinguished himself by his Latin poems, his numismatic treatises, his works on the study of antiquity, and on the value and mode of using ancient gems.
1775. Assault of the American forces under Montgomery and Arnold on Quebec. Montgomery was killed in advancing upon the barrier, at the head of the New York troops, and Arnold's division, after a desperate engagement, in which the Americans sustained the whole force of the garrison three hours were compelled to surrender themselves prisoners of war. They lost 100 killed, 300 taken.
1781. HENRY LAURENS, ambassador from the United States to France, liberated from the tower of London in exchange for general Burgoyne.
1791. JOHN ELLIS, a London scrivner, died; the last of that ancient profession. He was an alderman of London nearly half a century, and was besides a man of literature, whose conversation was highly extolled by Dr. Johnson.
1792. The quantity of gold coined at the royal mint of Mexico this year was $969,430; of silver, $23,225,611; total, $24,195,041; the largest sum which had been coined there since the conquest of the country.
1793. THOMAS JEFFERSON resigned the office of secretary of state to the United States.
1796. The thermometer 4° below zero in London. Several persons were frozen to death.
1799. JOHN FRANCIS MARMONTEL, a French novelist, died. He was admired for the vigor and delicacy of his writings, but was allowed to pass his last days in a state of retirement bordering on want.
1811. Tariffa, near Gibraltar, attacked by the French, who were repulsed with great loss by the British under colonel Skerritt.
1812. United States frigates President and Congress returned to Boston after an active cruise of three months, during which they passed over a space of about 8000 miles without meeting an adventure to test the courage and discipline of their crews. They, however, captured two British vessels, one laden with $300,000 specie and gold dust, the other with oil.
1816. Deaths in Boston this year, 904; in Paris, 19,992.